End of Year Traditions and Preparing for 2020

As the year draws to an end, the one thing my Mom taught me was never put off what you need to let go of before you start a new year.

So these last few days are for cleaning up, purging and Dead-filing. Now to take this stuff to the storage unit.

I even got my income tax papers organized today! Woohoo! I'm feeling productive.

I found a jar today while cleaning  and it's the perfect size for my Gratitude Jar.

I don't know if you've heard of this idea but I had seen it on Facebook and Pinterest a couple times this past month. One person said they write one thing a week that they are grateful that happened that week and on New Years Eve they open the jar and read everything that they were grateful for during the year. Another lady said she writes the best thing that happened to her that day, everyday and then reads them on New Years Eve. 

I haven't decided if I will do it daily or weekly, because I also keep a daily gratitude journal as well. In my Gratitude Journal I write every morning, 10 things I'm grateful for. Some people do it in the evening and go over the day, I prefer to start my day off with this so that I can go back to yesterday and feel good about it and move forward into my new day with the feeling of good things to happen.

What are your year end traditions? Do you have a routine of jobs needing to be done? Ways to prepare for the new year? I'd love to know what you do... please share!

Well, that is my day in a nutshell other than the usual picking up stuff for supper and tidying up.

Now for tea and clean up from dinner. Have a pleasant evening my friends.

                                      

Boxing Day Traditions

Every family has traditions. I know some have all the focus on holidays, others are focused on family vacations, ours was all the above plus Boxing Day had it's own tradition. Not everyone thinks about spending money. Even when they have money, some still just focus on remembering and family. The more important things about the holidays that we need to bring back. Don't you think?

I don't know exactly where the name for the day after Christmas came from really, but my Mom told me that it was the day that all decorations were taken down and packed up in boxes for another year. Thus it was "boxing day". So to this day, that's what I do.

We use to wrap the glass and ceramic ones in paper, talk about this current holiday and what our favorite moments were. It was kind of like the reverse of our Christmas decorating time, where we would reminisce about Christmas past and how we were going to make this Christmas just as special by coming up with ideas.

 Then after decorations were taken down and put away, we would have a cup of cider or tea. Tonight, my son and I are having both. Not at the same time, that would be silly. He is having an Apple Cider and I'm having tea... In my Mom's favorite teapot...

Yes, it is a chicken shaped pot... hee hee I remember her saying, "It's throwing up now." It still makes me smile.

Gosh, I miss her. Anyway, now I'm watching a movie then off to bed. But before I go, what are some of your favorite childhood traditions you still do today?

Good night, I hope you had a fabulous day!

Christmas Has Arrived... It Was Familiastic!

What a wonderful day it was. Spending time with my Dad, youngest brother,  Aunt, and the best son around.

The boys got Dad a gift together.  

Dad was pretty excited to see the bike jack.

My son tormented his uncle by packing his gift in side a couple big boxes filled with empty smaller boxes... hee hee

Yup, traditional skittles joke goes to the uncle.

This year his great aunt got him though. She packed his gift in with a box of KD. Hahahaha

I was spoiled this year. One of my gifts was a new lap blanket, from my brother... soooooo soft.

My son spoiled me too. He bought me a new laptop! I cried. Oh how I've been blessed. Family, gifts, food...memories. 

After gifts opening we played, Cashflow as is our family tradition. 

Then dinner!

Christmas dinner at 3pm. And it was delicious!

Merry Christmas everyone! From my family to yours.

We hope you had a blessed, happy, fun holiday.

Christmas Countdown Day 24 - Christmas Eve Adventure

Merry Christmas Eve my friends! My son had to work today until 4pm so we had a laye start on heading to my Dad's place in Kamloops.  

Roads were great! A little fog on the Connector but other then that all clear.

We got to Dad's at 7:40 pm. Dad, my Aunt and youngest brother were having supper so we visited for a bit, then settled in for our traditional Christmas Eve boardgame. We picked... Stockticker! Who remembers that game?

Of course we were laughing too much to really concentrate on the game but we did end the game by 10:30.

My son kicked butt. Of course. Hee hee

Now my Aunt and I are settled in our hotel room, here at the Holiday Inn for the night.

I with my book, her with her game. 

We wish you all a very merry Christmas eve night and see you tomorrow!

Christmas Countdown Day 23 - Wrapping, Boxes, Kitties, Oh My!

What a wonderful unusal day I had today. My son had an unexpected day off and asked me if we could go to Penticton for him to pick a last minute gifts and wrapping paper. Of course I use any excuse to spend time with my son.

After a leisure morning, breakfast, coffee and play time with kitties, off we went.

Tim got his gifts, quickly. He knew exactly what he was getting, just needed time off from work to get it. Hee hee

Wrapping gifts was a piece of cake once he remembered how.

                                                                                               

                                                    He did pretty good, don't you think?

While my son was wrapping his gifts, our cat, decided he needed to make sure the boxes were suitable for wrapping...

Ha ha ha ha It was a great day. My son bought me a Candy Cane hot chocolate and we talked, laughed and it was a lovely, fun day. Thank you my boy for helping me have a great day.

Tomorrow will be a busy day of packing and cleaning for our road trip to see Dad and the rest of the family. But for now, a movie: Arthur and Merlin, laundry and tea... I hope you all have a great evening!

Christmas Countdown Day 22 - Confession and Homemade Candy and Truffles

Mom's Amazon Lily bloomed but I accidently broke the flower stem, so I'm saving it here.

I've had people ask me why I've spent the past few weeks writing about Christmas and the things I'm doing everyday. They want to know why I'm doing all kinds of baking and making different homemade things. I told them that it's because I'm trying to find Christmas again, without my Mom and her love of Christmas. Truth is, that's only part of it.

You see, since I was injured in March, I've been unable to work and between waiting for surgery to repair my shoulder, depressed because of inability to do my favorite activities, etc, the final straw is the disability pay is very limited. A small fraction of what my regular pay is. So I have had to make major adjustments to my living style.

Christmas is no different. Gifts, food, spending ... Well, you get the idea. Challenges.

So I had to reach deep inside me to find what I needed to, to make Christmas special for my son, family, friends... me.

The journey began, with my first blog and continues through this post. I want you to understand that no matter what your situation is. Whether you are feeling alone, no funds for Christmas, no idea what to do to make things special for your family, you aren't alone.

I might not be able to buy the traditional gift for my family, but I can go back in time to before there were big box stores, malls, internet, Amazon, etc and give what I have. I know how to bake and I love doing crafts. That's where I started.

People love homemade treats. It doesn't have to be crazy, wild, imaginative foods. It can be something normal that you enjoy making... like cookies, cakes, nuts n bolts, etc. But if you're like me and you like creating you can search  for simple easy things to do and make. I was surprised at how many things I had in the home already that I could use to make Christmas just a bit more festive on a very tight budget.

And these delectable candies and truffles were no different. 

Check out my very first try of making, what my son calls, Candy Cane Gummies. They're really peppermint flavored with a red food dye in it, but I wasn't going to argue with him. He knows me and Candy Canes are all about Christmas.

 My son says they taste like jello... ha ha ha ha ha So I tried them. Yup, not the same texture as store bought gummies, but they are good. Mmmmmmm peppermint.

                                                          

Now to show off my truffles. 

So I've decided to make two kinds. Coconut and Cocoa. My family, I hope will like them.

These are going to be part of my gifts to the family. Along with some of the baking I've been doing.

Well, that's it for tonight. I'm going back to make the rest of the Truffles. 

Good night everyone. Thanks for reading. 

Remember, no matter the budget, you don't have to spend, like the media wants you to. Let's bring back family time, home and traditions this Christmas.

Christmas Countdown Day 21- First Time Ever Making a... Yule Log

I've heard of Yule Logs, the cake that is, but have never made one, let alone eaten one. So as you have already figured out, this Christmas I'm trying all kinds of new things.

I love baking, especially when it's something I've never  attempted before. I decided to challenge myself... I'd been sharing on Facebook all day... But if you missed it, it's all here now.

Check it out

                                     

Part one: Making a new treat for Christmas. My experiment with help from a few recipes I found online. So far it's working 🤞

My dream kitchen sure would be nice this Christmas but I'm making due... hee hee

 

Part of baking is the clean up... before I begin part two of the treat, I need a few of these dishes cleaned.

 Part two: can you guess what I'm trying to make? 

Hint: chocolate and coffee together in this part.

Yes, you guessed it, Chocolate Coffee Mousse filling

Getting ready to make part three then it will be ready to assemble

The cake is cool and ready to fill. I made a whipped chocolate frosting... Now to put the mousse in and freeze to set before I frost the cake....

Any ideas what I'm attempting to make from scratch?

Tada! 

 My very first Yule Log! Ok, ok, so I gave it away in the title of my blog... but I have to admit it was fun...

For the first time ever making one and from scratch...
I found a few recipes online for making one, but there were things I didn't like about all the recipes, so decided to combine all things I DID like about them and make my own...

Not sure how it tastes, but since this is the test Yule Log, I'll let my friends tell me what they think. If it passes the friends test then I'll make it for my family for Christmas....

So who's up for being my guinea pigs? Hee hee Coffee on and Yule Log is ready for your scrutiny!